Tentacle-Free Anime: "Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl" (1989)

Don’t let the title fool you; this series is much more about beating the crap out of your Judo opponent than it is about anything to do with fashion, and it's something both genders can very easily enjoy. That being said, I noticed my last review (the first ever Tentacle-Free Anime, reviewing "Redline") was not as in depth as I should’ve made it out to be, so this one will cover a lot more bases.

Inokuma Yawara is just another young high school girl. Well, not quite - for Yawara is being raised by her grandfather, 7th dan Judo master Inokuma Jigoro, to be Japan's great hope for the women's Judo competition at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. All the same, Yawara just wants to live a normal life... [AnimeNewsNetwork.com]

Yawara! is a 124 episode anime that aired from 1989-1992 and finished right around the time the Barcelona Olympics were airing in real life. In fact, the end of every episode had a brief countdown to the Olympic Games, which was historic in and of itself for being the very first time Women’s Judo was to be recognized as an Olympic sport; and so it became a major plot point of the series.

Yawara! is steeped in historical and real life references to make it seem more real. You won’t find many things in this world that would make it any different to what could happen in the real world. In fact, some of Yawara! actually did make it into the real world, but I will save that tidbit for later. So let’s get into the story, shall we?The story begins in 1986 with third rate sports reporter Matsuda Kousaku and his sidekick photographer (both of All-Sports News), a third rate newspaper, walking along minding their own business when a purse snatcher appears and runs past them. The snatcher is caught by a young mysterious girl who throws him over her back, successfully performing what is called an Ippon Zeoi in Judo (an Ippon is a one-hit win in Judo wrestling). The photographer gets a photo but it's only of the girl’s panties as her skirt flew up when she threw the snatcher. Matsuda runs a story on her and then decides to track this mysterious girl down, and ends up happening upon the young Inokuma Yawara, the main character of our story and a Judo prodigy.

Well, I would like to call her the main character of the story, as her name is in the title, but really this story is more about those around her and her influences on them through her Judo. Mainly Matsuda, whose dream becomes to see Yawara perform an Ippon Zeoi and win gold at the Barcelona Olympics and then write an awesome story on her. The series has a slow start to it at first, as most long-running stories do.

Yawara and Jigoro

The series has a slow start to it at first, as most long-running stories do.We’re introduced to a good-sized cast in the early episodes that will become staples throughout the entire series (and the cast just grows larger from here on out), with the likes of: Jigoro, Yawara’s grandfather who wishes her to become the world’s greatest Judo champion like he once was and so he trains her hard; Sayaka, a rich princess-type and very talented who has become world-renowned in almost every sport known to man (she decides to take up Judo in order to best Yawara, and the two become the biggest rivals of the series); and Kazamatsuri, a young handsome playboy who is Saiyaka’s Judo coach and is engaged to her by arranged marriage, though he becomes heavily attracted to Yawara.

There is also the mystery of Yawara’s father, who left his family when she was just a kid and has not been seen since. This has caused Yawara to despise Judo wrestling, but to give away the reasons behind it would ruin what is actually a very interesting plot development. The series is usually considered a seinen anime, because it deals with “more mature themes” than most anime do, but I don’t really see this as an accurate representation for what the show is. Seinen are often put down for being grimmer and dreary in their nature, whereas this series is more colorful and comedic - I laughed several times during almost every episode of this series.

Yawara about to throw Canadian heavy-weight champion Jody Rockwell.

One problem I did have with this series though is that it is very loud. There is barely any quiet moments in this whole show, as someone is usually shouting and reacting in an over-the-top fashion. But that’s to make the character more kinetic and lively. But yeah, it can pound on the ears at times. The show also does fall into anime tropes often, with characters that are unable to be completely honest with each other for there to be more tension in the show, and other characters getting strong at an almost unbelievable rate for the sake of them being more important to the series later on.

Six whole years pass in story between the first episode and the last, and through it we are graced with a very large cast of characters, all of which get their moment to shine in some way and none of which are 100% dislikable, making the series more fun-loving in nature and enjoyable to watch. Even with it being so enjoyable, this is one of the fewer known anime out there as the first 40-episodes were released on DVD here in America back in 2008 and then was discontinued after low sales (mostly due to an incredibly unreasonable initial sales price of $80-$100).

In fact, it’s sister anime Ranma ½ is almost universally known by anime fans and even some non-anime fans, yet when both anime were airing for the first time in Japan they aired at the same time slot and Japan much preferred to watch Yawara!, which constantly beat Ranma ½ in the viewing charts. The animation in this series was done by a young Studio Madhouse, who worked on the movie of my last review, Redline. This series is a testament to Madhouse’s skill as an animation studio as the animation doesn’t look too-dated and I would argue could still take on many anime in the modern era. Everyone in this anime also looks like real humans beings, which is what I personally prefer to see.

Jigoro cannot believe you haven't heard of Yawara!

The music is very nice with strong 1st and 2nd opening songs, the 1st opening song, Miracle Girl, I could play over and over again. The 3rd and 4th opening songs though leave much to be desired, as I didn’t find them overly enjoyable. The voice acting is quite well done, and the characters are really brought to life through their actors’ hard work.

I mentioned earlier that Yawara! was steeped in historical references and even a bit of Yawara! made it into real life. Well the biggest real world reference in the series is in Yawara’s grandfather himself, Jigoro who shares his first name and likeness with the founder of Judo wrestling: Jigoro Kano... though I can’t promise that they acted the same way. And when the series ended, there was a real life female Judo wrestler from Japan named Ryoko Tamura, who got 2nd place at the Barcelona Olympics and was nicknamed by the Japanese public Yawara-chan; she went on to have a very successful career in Judo akin to that of Yawara herself in the anime. How cool is that?

Also worthy of note is the creator; the series was created by Urasawa Naoki as his first major long running series. Anime fans will know this name as the man behind big well known series such as Monster and 20th Century Boys. Anyone who has read Naoki’s work will know he is fonder of using male characters as his protagonist, so this is a good chance to check out how he works with a female for the lead. He’s been called by many in the anime community as the God of Manga, though of course that’s merely up to fan opinion.

Yawara is determined.

In conclusion, Yawara! is an anime about following your dreams and never giving up till you achieve them because who knows, maybe even you can inspire people to do good with their lives and isn’t that really the best thing we can give others? Hope and determination to succeed. I know that’s sappy, but if you think about it, it’s really something we all need in our lives, even if you don’t know it yet. It’s about grabbing the world and giving it an Ippon of your own!

Final Verdict: Give it a chance; it really is an unsung gem of the anime world. 4 out of 5

Seen "Yawara!"? Enjoyed the review? Let us know in the comments section!